We have been living in our new apartment for about two months. Before that we were in a temporary apartment. Before that we were in transition for a seemingly long time preparing to move our family overseas.
And what temporary living and moving to new places means to me is this:
Plastic tubs.
Plastic tubs for days.
And for my kiddos, theirs have been the last plastic tubs to go.
Our new home has a wide hallway sort of area where all the bedroom doors meet and since we moved in, their clothes have lived in these tubs. It worked, but it was a mess most of the time.
H embraced the mess and basically refused to fold anything. I got tired of nagging him so I let him live in his happy wrinkly world for far too long.
One tote for each kid, but two for Mister B, cause babies have a lot of stuff!
Aren’t they cute?
Anyway, the time had come to remedy the situation. We felt well enough recovered from the first round of furniture purchasing (whew!) to begin a new project. So Mike and I headed to what we thought was a furniture showroom where we’d point and be done but actually ended up being a longish meeting with a guy on a laptop with folder after folder after folder of pictures of furniture on it and endless assurances that he can make anything exactly how we want it.
Eventually with the best Arabic we could muster, some folder searches, a few internet searches, measurement discussions and my mad bargaining skills, we had made an order.
And then a week later delivery day came, whoo hooo!!!
Since it was delivery day the kids asked if they could make a mess of their clothes and throw them in the air.
Sure. Why not?
So a teenager showed up with a truck driver and they carried our order into the house in many pieces.
We had a scare about a header we hadn’t noticed before possibly impeding the top section actually fitting on top, but the kid just whacked it with a mallet and that fixed it. Well, okie dokie then.
It’s basically almost nothing like the pictures we had carefully selected for him to design the wardrobe based on. Good thing we are familiar with how things work here and weren’t holding our breath. I was mildly disappointed, but what can you do?
Once he left I was too tired to put stuff away. But the NEXT day I had a glorious time putting things away. I’m not exaggerating. Glorious is actually a good word to describe this for me. I loved it!!
H volunteered to put Mister B’s clothes away and came up with this. Cute.
Okay, so now let me get to the Geek’s Excitement. You may have thought I meant getting a wardrobe delivered. That was nice, yes… but that’s not it.
My excitement was over a system I had devised… I WAS SO EXCITED FOR MY NEW SYSTEM!
You see, we have a lot of laundry. What else is new for me and for you?
It. Never. Ends. Lord give us grace.
Here is my laundry room. It also happens to be the kids’ bathroom, which is just off the same hallway where the new wardrobe is.
I have two hampers just for the kids and I purposely don’t mix kid laundry and grown up laundry. It’s just not efficient as it results in more sorting. Efficiency is written on my heart.
You’re anxious to learn about my new laundry system?!
Oh I’m so glad you’re interested, because I can hardly wait to show you!!
Here’s how goes.
1. The kids put their laundry in either the dark or light hamper in their bathroom. They usually get it right.
2. When a hamper gets full, I throw all the clothes in the washing machine right next to it (no further sorting necessary.)
3. Then most of it goes in the dryer that I purchased with my own money that I saved for months last year. Dryers are not common here, but I am familiar with the time it takes to hang dry laundry on little drying racks for a whole family (as well as how long it may take cloth diapers to air dry in winter) and I was willing to go to great lengths (and many months of penny pinching and saving) to prevent it.
4. When the dryer is done I take the one basket of clean and dry childrens’ clothes, walk about six steps to the hallway, set the basket on top of a hamper, open all the doors and drawers and then fold and put away the clean clothes directly from the basket to the four sections of closet standing in front of me. Each kid has their own section (obviously). Also, socks and underwear are always in the top drawer, and pajamas in bottom. H fought me on this one because he only has 2.5 pairs of pajamas and that doesn’t nearly fill the drawer (and he likes to have any extra space he can to stash who-knows-what), but I stood my ground to maintain the simplicity of having it be the same in all four sections. I’m such a geek! But I’m not a pushover.
I also have a basket on the shelf for mismatched socks, so it’s easy to make pairs or add a single if I come across one.
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Piles of laundry on the bed or table or floor or couch that are half folded and sorted into dozens of different piles are a thing of the past for me.
Can I get an amen?
This is literally a dream for me that has come true. I even prayed for our new home to have a big enough hallway to make a big combined children’s wardrobe a reality so that this system would work. That’s a geeky (and fluffy) prayer if I ever heard one!
I am not ashamed.
Also, I am not ashamed of the finishing touch I just put on it yesterday…
I know, I know, their names aren’t in age order. This was how I planned it, but the kids wanted to choose their own section, so I let them. See how flexible I am when it comes to my ideas? *wink*
Oh, and the carpenter forgot to include an extra shelf in each section. So after some nagging, he informed us that he is sending his helper at 9pm tonight (we’ll be lucky if it’s before 11) to fix that mistake and install 4 more shelves.
I couldn’t think of a better time to make a lot of noise in the hallway connecting the rooms of four sleeping children (and sometimes one sleeping adult at 9pm) myself! Ha!
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